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Parker: Obama's hard choices bring hard-to-answer questions
The exchange of five Guantanamo detainees for the release of Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl has reminded us of three unpleasant facts of life:
The United States does negotiate with terrorists; the president will circumvent laws as circumstances require; Republicans and Democrats will be summarily outraged as party affiliations seem to require.
We might also add processes will be "truncated," as President Obama described the exchange, and these are "hard choices," as Hillary Clinton put it, cleverly employing the title of her new book.
Which is to say, war is tricky and we have no idea what we're willing to do until the ball is in our court.
It is easier now to wish we had not invaded Iraq, given the absence of weapons of mass destruction. But in the wake of 9/11, when the Western world was convinced Saddam Hussein had WMD, eliminating a destabilizing force in the region seemed to many a viable strategy.
It seemed so to then-Sen. Clinton, who voted for the resolution to use military force against Iraq, but not to Barack Obama, then an Illinois state senator who didn't have to decide.
As president - how time flies - Obama has followed through on his campaign promises to end the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq but not to close Guantanamo. Promises are sometimes harder to keep when the facts are in your face. Obama also has increased drone "warfare," eliminating enemies as well as civilians and at least one American citizen deemed to be a combatant without, shall we say, due process.
So yes, he is the non-war president, except ... and he follows the law and protects the Constitution, unless ... and he wants to close Guantanamo, but encountered the same daunting obstacles George W. Bush did.
Yes, yes, Bush created the problem. Noted. To the point of this column, however, when Obama was faced with whether to release prisoners in exchange for Bergdahl, he was forced to make an executive decision. And yes, he sidestepped the law requiring 30 days' notification to Congress, but the law's timetable was untenable given the reportedly narrow window of opportunity. Whether the president indeed had been discussing the possibility with Congress remains a matter of dispute.
A top GOP aide confirmed to me no such discussion took place before last week's exchange and when the idea was floated more than two years ago, it met with strong bipartisan opposition from congressional leaders.
Obama has justified his decision on the basis of precedent - other presidents have released prisoners as wars wind down - and on the principle we don't leave our people behind.
Equivalency is a fragile argument here. Bush's wars and Obama's drones are clearly not the same, though you might find those in Afghanistan or Pakistan who would argue otherwise. And George Washington's release of British prisoners during the Revolutionary War can't be compared to freeing Taliban warriors. Rather than returning home to reclaim their civilian lives, jihadists likely return even more resolved to continue a war that ends only after everyone on the planet converts to Islam.
What is often similar, however, is the moment of truth when a president has to make his own call because he thinks beyond reasonable doubt it is the right decision. History doesn't always reward these decisions, but the titans of hindsight are usually compensated for style over content.
It is possible some of the current criticism is tied to partisan pride as well as the opening of old wounds. Seeing the five bearded detainees was a vivid reminder of 9/11 and its chief perpetrator, Osama bin Laden. The sight of Bergdahl's father, bearded and speaking Arabic and Pashto as he invoked Allah in the Rose Garden with the president was both strange and creepy.
Obama critics naturally saw the president's mouth tip in a smile, though it could be interpreted as a grimace. What was he to do, grab the microphone? Stare grimly at a father announcing the release of his boy after five years in captivity?
There is nothing trivial about these events, but the questions raised are, nonetheless, "Homeland"-ishly intriguing: Did Bob Bergdahl convert to Islam? Did his son? Did Bowe Bergdahl abandon his post as fellow soldiers claim? Is he a traitor?
Until the Army provides answers, we'll have to make do with speculation. Meanwhile, the only question that required an immediate response was, did the U.S. want Bergdahl back and what were we willing to trade?
This was indeed a hard choice - and the answer had to be yes.
KATHLEEN PARKER's column is distributed by The Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., NW, Washington, D.C., 20071. Email: email@example.com.


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Sheriff: Second suspect possible in college attack
A second suspect may emerge in the aftermath of the shooting at a Houston-area community college that left three people injured, the Harris County sheriff said Wednesday.
At least 10 shots were fired Tuesday during a dispute between two men outside the library at the North Harris campus of Lone Star College, Sheriff Adrian Garcia said. Authorities were still looking for the handgun that was used.
Carlton Berry, 22, is charged with two felony counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Garcia offered no additional details on the role of a possible second suspect. He said investigators were trying to determine what caused the argument, adding that the dispute was "idiocy, stupidity."
"We had individuals who did not care about putting other people in harm's way," he said at an afternoon news conference. "It was a ridiculous, adolescent confrontation that occurred."
Berry was injured in the incident and is under police supervision at a Houston hospital, Garcia said. Investigators were still trying to determine how he was wounded.
Berry had a Lone Star College ID but it was not clear whether he was enrolled at the school, Garcia said. Court records did not list an attorney for Berry.
Garcia said the two other people wounded in the shooting were recovering. Jody Neal, 25, with whom Berry was arguing, was shot in the abdomen and leg. Neal was pursuing his GED, the sheriff said.
A maintenance worker for the college, 55-year-old Bobby Cliburn, was standing nearby and was shot in the leg. Sheriff's officials corrected his age, which was reported earlier as 69.
A woman whose name has not been released also received medical treatment. It was initially believed she suffered a heart attack, but Garcia said she was treated for an anxiety attack.
Berry is scheduled for a court hearing Thursday, which could be delayed because of his medical condition, officials said. He faces a total bond of $60,000.
The volley of gunshots around noon Tuesday at the college, located in north Houston, prompted a lockdown then evacuation of the campus. Students were allowed to return to campus and retrieve their vehicles later Tuesday. Classes at the campus resumed Wednesday.

subset: commoncrawl


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'Nashville' goes live in new season premiere
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Actor Charles Esten has more at stake in the new season of the ABC drama "Nashville" than resolving the cliffhanger that left his character, singer-songwriter Deacon Claybourne, in the midst of a lyricist love triangle.
During the season-three premiere, Esten, who sang in a band and stage productions long before becoming an actor, will perform a song he co-wrote with Grammy-nominated country singer Deana Carter, "I Know How to Love You Now." It's his first co-written tune to appear on the show, but Esten has had plenty of practice after opening with co-star Clare Bowen for country stars Jennifer Nettles and Alan Jackson on a few shows during the summer hiatus.
"I've played some big rooms, but none as big as the whole United States," said Esten in an interview while shooting on location in Nashville.
"Nashville" has made a successful side business out of the music from the show, with four collections of soundtracks that have sold a combined 627,000 copies, according to Nielsen Soundscan.
Lennon Stella, who plays teenager Maddie Conrad, said the live performances are more theater than television.
"There's no taking it back," said Stella, who got her start singing cover songs on YouTube with her younger sister Maisy. "I think it's pretty risky, but exciting for the show."
Esten and actor Chris Carmack will perform in the Sept. 24 show live from the show's Bluebird Cafe set. The studio versions of the songs will be available for download on iTunes immediately after the show.
"As always, when you perform at the Bluebird, it's generally live anyway, so this is not really different," Esten said, referring to the real Nashville venue that the show duplicated on a soundstage. "It will be as real as it should be."
Follow Kristin Hall on Twitter at http://twitter.com/kmhall


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"Kooky" Nicki Minaj and American Idol Judges Tiptoe Around the F-Word
Even though shooting on Season 12 of American Idol is more than two months in, it's clear that the judges are still trying to avoid the F-word. No, not the bleepable profanity, but that other F-word: feud!
During a break from shooting Hollywood Week on Wednesday in Los Angeles, the judges did their best to answer probing questions without fueling reports of a beef between newcomers Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj. Host Ryan Seacrest offered this diplomatic assessment of the judging panel that also includes new face Keith Urban and Idol vet Randy Jackson: "Individually, each one of those judges has a very specific point of view and a very specific opinion. And often they'll argue for the contestants that they believe in. And often they don't agree. They have to come to a consensus at some point. But I think that you'll see throughout this season really strong, individual, spirited opinions across the board."
PHOTOS: From Nicki Minaj to Kim Kardashian: Put away your cleavage!
Jackson, however, acknowledged some friction, but in a positive light. "We often disagree. But, you know, it's kind of funny that we laugh at it," he said. "I think this is one of my favorite judging panels thus far. We're having a good time. It's a fun time, it's a funny time. We crack a lot of jokes."
And even though neither deigned to drop that F-bomb, Seacrest did offer up one-word appraisals of the individual judges: pizzazz (Minaj), soothing (Carey), whiskery (Urban) and huggable (Jackson)! But would the judges agree? Check out how they would assess themselves and some scoop on Season 12:
Nicki the entertainer: "[I'm] kooky. Never a dull moment with my judging style. That's for sure," Minaj said. "I try to never plan what I'm going to say or how I'm going to feel. I just try to stay in the moment and allow some craziness to come ... It's the entertainment business. We're artists. If we don't have some craziness and kookiness, then it wouldn't really be real. You know what I mean? We can't really sit there and be stiff and say the same things. So I try to get the contestants out of their comfort zones of hearing the same things over and over."
Idol feud heats up! Mariah Carey tells Barbara Walters: Nicki Minaj threatened to shoot Me
Mariah the un-sugar-coated fairy? "I like to think of myself more as a fairy godmother," Carey said. "I've learned a lot. I want to continue to be the best I can be in order to help. ... I try to speak as frankly as possible, as kindly as possible -- not like sugar-coating the whole thing because that does nobody any good. And I think it would be boring for people to watch. But I feel like my experience as a recording artist and a producer and a writer has helped me get to a point where I can sit there and say, 'I'm not sure if you hit this part correctly because maybe the modulation took you by surprise,' or 'You weren't quite prepared to blend that harmony with this person who was singing way louder than you.'"
Keith the empathizer: "[I'm] fair and authentic, I hope. When I was 9 and 10, I [competed in] one of these shows in Australia," Urban revealed. "I was really, really crucified by one of the judges, and it was devastating. So I try to not absolutely destroy somebody in front of millions of people, but at the same time, if someone's not really on, and everyone at home knows it, that's the difficult part too. ... And for me, if any of the emotions are present -- the joy, the vulnerability, the insecurity, the uncertainty, the anger, whatever it is -- if I can feel that in them, I'm interested. Even if they're a little bit out of tune."
Randy the linguist: Carey offered the following observation about Idol's impact, and ultimately, her fellow judge Jackson: "It changed the way we looked at music. It changed people's vocabularies," she said. "Thank you, Randy for 'pitchy.' No one really knows what it means, do we?" Jackson, however, likes to think of himself as "The O.G."
VIDEO: Idol judge Nicki Minaj curses out Mariah Carey
A Hollywood Week twist: "This is the first time that we've ever brought the guys out without the girls," Seacrest revealed. "So the guys are here, the girls are not yet. And the guys didn't know that, and some of the guys are kind of bummed because they're just hanging with each other."
The real reason a girl hasn't won in five seasons: "It's the critics that aren't voting! That's what's wrong," Jackson joked. "Why aren't you guys voting?"
Are you looking forward to American Idol returning? Season 12 kicks off Wednesday, Jan. 16 at 8/7c on Fox.
View original "Kooky" Nicki Minaj and American Idol Judges Tiptoe Around the F-Word at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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Four Against One
Do you ever feel outnumbered by your children? Sometimes it seems that just as you get one child settled,another finds a button to push and the chaos continues. There are so many opportunities for parents to reach and teach children so they are able to behave well and learn as they grow. Negative cycles can occur when parents feel out numbered or out of control. Take control with a few simple changes that require only minimal effort and produce impressive results. Don't be that parent in the mall, at the restaurant or even in your home who wonders "How did this get so bad?" Find the answers as I unfold the true story of a mom outnumbered in a restaurant with her four children. Read the entire article "Four against one".


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From The Economist, here are some excerpts of a summary of research exploring the interior situation of how poverty is passed from one generation to the next.
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That the children of the poor underachieve in later life, and thus remain poor themselves, is one of the enduring problems of society. . . . But nobody has truly understood what causes it. Until, perhaps, now.
The crucial breakthrough was made three years ago, when Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania showed that the working memories of children who have been raised in poverty have smaller capacities than those of middle-class children. Working memory is the ability to hold bits of information in the brain for current use—the digits of a phone number, for example. It is crucial for comprehending languages, for reading and for solving problems. Entry into the working memory is also a prerequisite for something to be learnt permanently as part of declarative memory—the stuff a person knows explicitly, like the dates of famous battles, rather than what he knows implicitly, like how to ride a bicycle.
Since Dr Farah's discovery, Gary Evans and Michelle Schamberg of Cornell University have studied the phenomenon in more detail. As they report in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, they have found that the reduced capacity of the memories of the poor is almost certainly the result of stress affecting the way that childish brains develop.
* * *
For all six [measures of stress], a higher value indicates a more stressful life; and for all six, the values were higher, on average, in poor children than in those who were middle class. Moreover, because Dr Evans's wider study had followed the participants from birth, the two researchers were able to estimate what proportion of each child's life had been spent in poverty. . . .
The capacity of a 17-year-old's working memory was also correlated with [stress levels]. Those who had spent their whole lives in poverty could hold an average of 8.5 items in their memory at any time. Those brought up in a middle-class family could manage 9.4, and those whose economic and social experiences had been mixed were in the middle.
. . . Dr Evans and Dr Schamberg . . . were able [statistically] . . . to remove the effect of [stress levels] on the relationship between poverty and memory discovered originally by Dr Farah. When they did so, that relationship disappeared. In other words, the diminution of memory in the poorer members of their study was entirely explained by stress, rather than by any more general aspect of poverty.
* * *
That stress, and stress alone, is responsible for damaging the working memories of poor children thus looks like a strong hypothesis. It is also backed up by work done on both people and laboratory animals, which shows that stress changes the activity of neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry signals from one nerve cell to another in the brain. . . .
Children with stressed lives, then, find it harder to learn. Put pejoratively, they are stupider. It is not surprising that they do less well at school, end up poor as adults and often visit the same circumstances on their own children.
. . . . The main reason poor people are stressed is that they are at the bottom of the social heap as well as the financial one.
Sir Michael Marmot, of University College London, and his intellectual successors have shown repeatedly that people at the bottom of social hierarchies experience much more stress in their daily lives than those at the top—and suffer the consequences in their health. Even quite young children are socially sensitive beings and aware of such things.
So, it may not be necessary to look any further than their place in the pecking order to explain what Dr Evans and Dr Schamberg have discovered in their research into the children of the poor. . . .
* * *
To read the entire article, click here. To read a sample of related Situationist posts, see "Rich Brains, Poor Brains?," "Jeffrey Sachs on the Situation of Global Poverty," "The Situation of Financial Risk-Taking," "The Situation of Standardized Test Scores," and "Infant Death Rates in Mississippi."


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Explore awards
Use the filter menu and interactive map to explore the past competitions offered and grants awarded through the Environmental Literacy Program.
To learn more about project findings and outcomes, view the summaries of our grantees' summative evaluation reports.
Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities (CSCRC)
The "Citizen Science, Civics, and Resilient Communities" (CSCRC) education project led by the Museum of Science, Boston in partnership with Arizona State University and Northeastern University will increase resilience to extreme weather and environmental hazards through citizen-created data, local knowledge, and community values. Building upon previous funding from NOAA in which a set of modules were created and used to engage participants in active learning and resilience planning about four natural hazards (heat waves, sea level rise, extreme precipitation, and drought), the museum and its partners will add participatory citizen science activities selected in close collaboration with resilience planners. This new and expanded project will involve diverse groups of participants at 28 U.S. science centers collecting, analyzing, and sharing data relevant to local resilience planners, learning about vulnerabilities through visualizations of geospatial data and deliberative problem-solving, sharing perspectives about resilience strategies and their societal and environmental trade-offs, formulating community resilience plans, and presenting findings and recommendations to resilience planners and publics. The project aims to formulate a theory of action that sustains engagement and increases environmental literacy among participants, contributes citizen-created data, knowledge, and values to resilience planning, and increases capacity among science centers for including publics in resilience planning and data collection.
Resilience from the Youth Up
As climate impacts ratchet up across the United States, the Great Lakes region tends to fly under the national radar. While the Great Lakes do not experience hurricanes, rising sea levels, or large-scale wildfires, the local climate has become increasingly erratic in recent years. The region, however, is one of the most unprepared in the country to cope with these impacts. A recent Grosvenor report (2014) on climate resilience among 50 global cities ranked Detroit last among 11 U.S. cities for adaptability and only better than three cities for overall resilience, which incorporates both climate vulnerability and adaptability factors. Of U.S. cities with more than 100,000 residents, Detroit has the highest percentage of African-American residents (80.7%, U.S. Census 2016). Still recovering from bankruptcy, the city also has a 39% poverty rate, which impacts over 56% of children (ibid). These socio-economic factors, coupled with other environmental justice concerns, such as a centrally located incinerator and an asthma rate of 15.5% among adults resulting in over 3,000 hospitalizations annually, make Detroit residents particularly vulnerable to climate impacts. This project will address the urgent need to increase resilience by working with high school students and teachers in Detroit and southeast Michigan to increase their awareness of climate change and develop projects that help their schools and neighborhoods become resilient to increased occurrence and intensity of heat waves, storm events, and flooding. Using NOAA assets, including GLISA localized climate data and Sea Grant outreach and education expertise, high school students and teachers will partner with climate scientists to explore local climate impacts firsthand and to develop resilience strategies and projects that protect vulnerable households and neighborhoods and contribute to broader sustainability initiatives. The City of Detroit seeks this involvement as it ramps up a new Office of Sustainability and seeks proposals to develop the city's first Sustainability Framework. The effort is a partnership with EcoWorks, Great Lakes Integrated Sciences + Assessments (GLISA), Michigan Sea Grant (MISG), Southeast Michigan Stewardship Coalition (SEMIS), Eastern Michigan University, Civic Research Services, Inc., and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). In each of the next three years, 200 students from various high schools in the Detroit and Ypsilanti areas will participate in weekly activities related to the grant. The four primary objectives of the program include: 1) Engage students in assessing and quantifying climate vulnerabilities of their schools, neighborhoods, and surrounding community. 2) Using a place-based education (PBE) model, prepare educators to engage students in creating plans and completing projects that increase community resilience. 3) Empower high school students to teach residents about local climate impacts and increase understanding of resilience strategies to mitigate extreme weather events or other environmental hazards. 4) Contribute to the completion and implementation of local sustainability and climate action plans in Southeast Michigan.
CREATE Resilience: Community Resilience through Education, Art, Technology, and Engagement
CREATE Resilience: Community Resilience through Education, Art, Technology and Engagement, is a multi-disciplinary collaboration between youth and community to 1) improve environmental hazards literacy, and 2) increase engagement in resiliency actions by youth and adult residents in the Lehigh Valley region of Pennsylvania. CREATE Resilience is designed to increase community knowledge about weather and climate science, risks from local hazards, and strategies for hazard mitigation, while co-creating a vision for community resilience. Developed by Nurture Nature Center (NNC) in Easton, PA, the four-year project will work with local, state and federal partners in three hazard-prone communities in the Lehigh Valley (Easton, Bangor and Wilson areas). Hazards, particularly weather-related hazards including flooding, have had major impacts in these communities historically and recently, causing extensive damage to property and disruption to community services. Damaging river flooding along the Delaware River in 2004, 2005 and 2006 highlighted major planning and safety challenges for many municipalities in the area with high flood risk, and a recently updated regional Hazard Mitigation plan highlighted other hazards – as well as the need for public education about hazards and mitigation. CREATE Resilience's advisory board will work with NNC to bring education and engagement events to teach the science of these hazards, as well the household and community-level strategies and tools available for resilience. Partners include the National Weather Service (NWS) Middle Atlantic River Forecast Center and Mt. Holly, NJ Weather Forecast Office, and Weather Prediction Center, as well as LV Planning Commission, Northampton County Emergency Management Agency, LV Community Foundation, Lafayette College, and FEMA Region 3 Mitigation Division. In years 1 and 2, the project will form CREATE Youth Ambassador teams, in which student interns from area high schools will meet NWS meteorologists, engage in community storytelling events, develop local hazard and resilience tours, and learn from climate and other scientists about hazards and strategies for resilience. Ambassadors will also develop and lead programming for community residents. Simultaneously, residents will participate in active-learning education events, dialogue forums, arts-based activities, technology-based programs using NOAA assets, and hands-on preparedness activities. Each community will build a collective understanding of local hazards and mitigation strategies, and co-create a vision for resilience, represented in traveling visual artist-designed murals in the third year of the project. This education and shared vision will build community support for planning and resilience and help households in making better preparedness decisions. Dissemination through Science on a Sphere® and guidebooks will share the replicable model with other organizations and communities, extending the reach of the project. Close cooperation with NWS offices helps the project meet key goals of NOAA's Education Strategic Plan, related to safety/preparedness and a science-informed society. Through public events and print materials, the project will showcase and interpret NOAA-related science and data with area residents, while creating collaborative learning opportunities for youth and community to interact with NOAA scientists. CREATE Resilience also engages youth and adults in preparing for hazards, and in multi-generational learning to improve community awareness and involvement in preparedness and mitigation.
Empowering Climate Change Resiliency through Education in an Underserved Community
Understanding climate change and its exacerbating effects on local environmental phenomena (e.g., increase in frequency and/or intensity of drought, ocean acidification, water shortages, degraded fisheries) and how to create resiliency is critical for underserved communities as they are disproportionately impacted by these hazards and yet, have the least capacity to actively respond. To address this issue, Ocean Discovery Institute and its partners will build understanding of climate change and impacts on local hazards, human-nature interactions, and individual and community capacity for resilience through place-based education in the underserved community of City Heights, San Diego, CA. This project, titled "Empowering Climate Change Resiliency through Education in an Underserved Community," will involve a wide range of partners, including California Sea Grant, the California Nevada Climate Applications Program, NOAA's Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory, Cabrillo National Monument, San Diego Canyonlands, RECON Environmental, Inc., and the San Diego Unified Port District. Project activities encompass the design, piloting, and implementation of multi-grade level, integrated curricula that incorporate hands-on student climate science research, innovative solution building, and teacher professional development. This project will serve 1,500 middle school students annually and is expected to increase students' understanding of scientific concepts and processes and human-nature interactions, improve their ability to make science-informed decisions, and contribute to local resilience efforts.


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Richard Sale, author of Clinton's Secret Wars, has written an article outlining the escalation of the joint U.S.-Israeli cyber attack on Iran's nuclear program. A new malware, apparently built off of the Stuxnet worm used against Iran's centrifuge systems between 2009 and 2010, is in development:
According to former and serving US intelligence officials, leaders of the three major software companies, Sergey Brin at Google, Steve Ballmer at Microsoft and Larry Ellison at Oracle have been working with Israel's top cyber warriors and have now come up with a new version of a Stuxnet-like worm that can bring down Iran's entire software networks if the Iranian regime gets too close to breakout, according to US intelligence sources.
This new Stuxnet worm is being advanced by administration and intelligence officials as a more powerful tool with a stronger range and capability than the previous version. Officials want this new cyber capability to derail any military action that could result in a regional war.
You have to ask, if it's that good, why stop at deterrence when you can aim for preemption? It would be far easier for Israeli, U.S. and UK warplanes to operate over Iran in the event of an attack if this "Super Stuxnet" scrambled Iran's air defense systems, rendering early warning and interception systems impotent. It opens up new scenarios for U.S. action — covert or overt — vis a vis Iran's nuclear program. Surely the UK military, which has committed to reinforcing the U.S. naval presence in the Gulf and whose officials spoke at length in the Guardian on what might be used to take out Iran's nuclear assets (Tomahawk cruise missile, airstrikes, commandos) will welcome this new tool.
Far from being a deterrent, this new malware has the potential to be the software equivalent of the Strategic Defense Initiative. Yet while "Super Stuxnet" might turn into a U.S.-Israeli trump card, it also has the potential to become the electronic equivalent of Operation Fast and Furious.
Stuxnet, which entered the world wide web as early as 2009 and was discovered at work in Iran the next year, was built under U.S.-Israeli government auspices using stolen Taiwanese software certificates so that it could infect a widely-used "industrial control system made by the German conglomerate Siemens that was used to program controllers that drive motors, valves and switches," i.e., Iranian centrifuge components. According to Wired magazine, the sophistication of the device and its target befuddled security experts because no one could initially figure out why a hacker would want to sabotage these systems (the answer was that the hackers were government-backed cyber warfare experts).
Then again, this avenue of attack is not new. If certain Cold Warriors are to be believed, the U.S. has a thing for valve sabotage. Thomas C. Reed, a former Secretary of the Air Force and Reagan-era advisor affiliated with the nuclear-warhead manufacturer Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, contends that in the 1980s, the U.S. discovered a KGB network that existed solely to steal and reverse engineer Western computer technology. Rather than expose the network, the U.S. used information from a KGB double agent's papers (the "Farewell" Dossier) to determine what companies the KGB was stealing from. The U.S. then slipped all manner of cyber ordinance into their products. One such "logic bomb" allegedly destroyed a key Soviet pipeline by scrambling the software that controlled the pressure and flow of oil. The story of this sabotage effort was publicized by William Safire in 2004, and by the CIA itself in 2007.
Programming valves and motors to malfunction? Now doesn't that sound familiar?
If this "Super Stuxnet" does exist, then it represents a comprehensive sabotage plan with far grander goals than the original Stuxnet, or even the "Farewell" Dossier, which, for all its defense applications (launch silo shutters unable to be opened or closed due to a bug?) was only targeted at the Soviet economy. It essentially amounts to an internet kill switch + EMP that can be activated remotely — or is already capable of activating itself at a preprogrammed time.
Iran, like the USSR in the 1980s, presumably has no advanced cyber warfare capacity to retaliate with, despite its attempts to play up its own cyber warfare capacity. The USSR could not identify or isolate the electronic weapons used against it in the 1980s. Iran today would likely have a tough time doing anything more with "Super Stuxnet" than enduring it's machinations. But Iran has some friends who might be more adept at turning "Super Stuxnet" on its handlers.
Russia, of course, comes to mind. Revenge for "Farewell"? Poetic, but not pragmatic. Instead, Russia would presumably be interested in both the original and the new Stuxnets because of their security applications. Defensively, seeing how these worms work would help Russia enhance protection of its own nuclear production assets and protect its communications systems from being scrambled during a military action. Offensively, we saw Russia use cyber warfare in the 2008 Georgian conflict, targeting civilian, government and military internet assets. For all Russia's financial and technical problems, she does endeavor to stay on the cutting edge in every military arm.
The cutting edge is very important for Russia not just because of NATO, but because she shares a very long border with the world's leading cyber warfare aspirant, the People's Republic of China — which also happen to be friends of Tehran's.
China's interests in seeing how the Stuxnets work are basically similar to Russia's, with the added goal of surpassing the U.S.'s own cyber warfare capabilities as soon as possible. The People's Liberation is Army is tailoring cyber warfare assets towards an "Integrated Network Electronic Warfare" that can target U.S. civilian and military infrastructure, from satellites to stop lights.
So, whatever success or deterrence "Super Stuxnet" brings Tel Aviv and Washington, I'd like to ask its creators what they think the Iranians did with the original Stuxnet-contaminated hardware after removing it?
A. Dumped it in an electronic graveyard â¨
B. Locked it in a heavily-guarded warehouseâ¨
C. Passed it onto the People's Republic of China and/or Russia
Of course, this presumes China and Russia have normal diplomatic relations with Iran, the kind of relations in which countries with some shared strategic objectives — securing energy access, increasing their regional influence, undermining American hyperpower — exchange military, financial and diplomatic support on a semi-regular basis.
It doesn't take much. One flash drive, a laptop or two. Maybe a server. All bundled off to bunkers in Moscow or Shanghai c/o the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
As Richard Sale quotes an unnamed U.S. official, cyberweapons are essentially electronic bioweapons. And when you want to see how your opponent's bioweapons work, you need infected tissue samples — both to make a cure, and then to engineer your own, superior version.
Paul Mutter is a graduate student at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at NYU and a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.


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I tell you what – it's been a long time since I've read anything that reeks of as much hypocrisy as this Matt Hayes article about Matthew Thomas, the kid who wants out of his LOI with FSU.
I really do feel for Jimbo Fisher, who's in a tough spot entirely not of his own making. On the one hand, does he really want a disgruntled soul like Thomas hanging around his program? It's hard to see right now how he makes a positive contribution in Tallahassee this season.
But on the other, Fisher's peers are closing ranks, and just in the way you might expect.
… Here's something else Fisher has become: the test case for his coaching fraternity.
"I told him, if he lets (Thomas) go free, precedent is set and everything changes," said one BCS coach.
… I've spoken to three different BCS coaches who have reached out to Fisher and advised him to play it strictly by the book. In other words, if Thomas wants to leave, he can leave—but not without paying the NCAA penalty of sitting out a season of eligibility.
Tough guys. I wonder if one of the coaches who "reached out" to Fisher was Todd Graham. Now there's somebody who's paid the price for serially jumping ship.
It's not the attitude that a confused 18-year old should be held to a higher standard for doing the same thing that a grown-ass man who has access to legal representation does that gets me. It's that these selfish bastards expect us to share their attitude about it. But at least they got Hayes to cheerlead for them.


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Today's News: Our Take - Justin Timberlake Goes Off on "D---head" Critics
Justin Timberlake landed the coveted cover of GQ's Men of the Year issue, but the singer's interview got off to a rough start.
"So I find it ironic that I'm doing an interview with you about Man of the Year when I feel-literally-like a bunch of people just took a sh-- on my face," Timberlake told the magazine.
The singer's poor mood was apparently due to the underwhelming critical response to both his latest film Runner Runner and album The 20/20 Experience: 2 of 2.
Surprising celebrity family ties
"Where did all this vitriol come from? It's mean. And I'm not cut out for it," Timberlake said, 20 years after starting his career in show business.
"This face," Timberlake said, circling it with one finger, "This recognizable face that you work so hard to get - not because you want the recognition but because you know you're made to do it" comes at a cost, he explained.
"The movie didn't do well at the box office, so I should quit? Hold on a second. If I was somebody else, you wouldn't have said that," he continued. "I have the number one album this week, and I shouldn't have released it? Come on, man. You sound like a d---head.... It just shocked me because, like, you're trade magazines. None of your opinions count. And by the way, none of you can do it."
25 totally unnecessary spin-offs
"Sometimes I find it funny that I've been able to acquire the patience it takes to be kind to people in our business," Timberlake added. "Because sometimes I just want to f---ing kill everybody."
But Timberlake, always the optimist, doesn't let the haters get him down - at least not too much. "I don't see myself as someone who's ever going to be defined by one moment," he said. "It's on to the next."
View original Justin Timberlake Goes Off on "D---head" Critics at TVGuide.com
Other Links From TVGuide.com


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McDonald's new Fish McBites failed to hook enough diners to get the fast-food chain's US sales growing in February.
The world's biggest hamburger chain said Friday that a key sales figure was down 3.3 percent in the U.S. for the month. When excluding the extra day of sales for February of last year, which was a leap year, the company said the figure was flat. That was despite the rollout of the Fish McBites nuggets in three sizes, which were also offered as the first new Happy Meal entree in a decade.
The struggle to grow at home reflects the mounting pressures on McDonald's, which had managed to pull away from its rivals and thrive even during the Great Recession.
Now the Oak Brook, Ill.-based chain is facing a rapidly shifting industry, with chains such as Chipotle and Panera reshaping customers' expectations about fast food. An increase in payroll taxes that took effect in January isn't helping.
Long-time competitors such as Burger King, Taco Bell and Wendy's are also revamping their menus and stepping up advertising. Making matters worse, McDonald's CEO Don Thompson, who took the helm this summer, has said that he expects overall growth in the industry will continue to be flat to down for some time.
In response, McDonald's is playing up its Dollar Menu to attract budget-conscious diners, a strategy some analysts have questioned because it could hurt profit margins. The chain is also increasing its limited-time offers as a way to keep its menu fresh.
Notably, McDonald's also has a high bar to meet because of its past success; U.S. sales rose 11.1 percent in February of last year and 2.7 percent in 2011.
In light of those tough comparisons, R.W. Baird analyst David Tarantino said McDonald's U.S. results were "respectable." He also noted that the broader industry remains pressured by other factors, such as higher payroll taxes and gas prices.
Results in other parts of the world were mixed. Globally, McDonald's said sales at established restaurants fell 1.5 percent for the month. When excluding the impact of the extra day, the company said sales rose 1.7 percent.
Over in Europe, McDonald's said sales were down 0.5 percent or up 2.7 percent when factoring out the extra day from a year ago. The company has been focusing on expanding its breakfast menu and restaurant hours throughout the region, which represents its biggest market by sales.
In the region including Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, the sales figure was down 1.6 percent, or up 1.5 percent when excluding the impact of the calendar shift. Although sales in China and Australia were positive, McDonald's continued to struggle in Japan, where sank 12 percent at restaurants open at least 13 months. That was following a 17 percent drop in January.
The figure is a key metric because it strips out the effects of newly opened and closed locations.
McDonald's Corp. hadn't logged a monthly decline in its global sales figure for nearly a decade until this past October. And the figure dropped in January as well, making February the third decline in just five months.
In a statement Friday, CEO Thompson said he was confident McDonald's had the experience to "grow the business for the long term."
The monthly sales figures are a snapshot of money spent on food at both company-owned and franchised restaurants and do not reflect corporate revenue.


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Have you ever heard of a Wisconsin woman named Beverly Stayart? Unless you follow semi-obscure legal cases or live in Elkhorn, Wisconsin, the answer is probably no.
Stayart is a middle-aged woman who describes herself on her Tumblr page as the "CFO and Director of Business Development for Stayart Law Offices." For years now, her name has popped up alongside listings for drugs such as Cialis and links to websites hosting malware in search results on various search engines (including Alta Vista, Yahoo, and even AdultFriendFinder) as an apparent result of search engine optimization algorithms and auto-complete. As a result, she's pursued lawsuits against these companies, arguing that they have violated her right to privacy by misappropriating her name and serving up ads or auto-suggesting search terms around her name.
So far she's lost at every turn. Her latest case is against Google, and it argues that her name has been misappropriated because searching for "Bev Stayart" on the search engine brings up "Bev Stayart Levitra" in Google's auto-suggest algorithm. (Levitra is an erectile dysfunction drug.)
On Wednesday, however, the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed her yet another loss in her lawsuit against Google, upholding a decision made by a district court in 2011. In the appellate case, Stayart argued that her rights under Wisconsin's right to privacy laws had been violated under §995.50(2)(b).
"The use, for advertising purposes or for purposes of trade, of the name, portrait or picture of any living person, without having first obtained the written consent of the person or, if the person is a minor, of his or her parent or guardian" constitutes an invasion of privacy, the law states.
But the Court disagreed.
"Stayart has not articulated a set of facts that can plausibly lead to relief under Wisconsin's misappropriation laws," the court wrote (PDF).
In fact, the court cited her own previous case against Yahoo, in which that court found that there had to be a "substantial rather than an incidental connection between the use and the defendant's commercial purpose."
Stayart did not respond immediately to our request for comment.
Eric Goldman, a law professor at Santa Clara University, wrote about Stayart's case back in 2011, saying:
The court couches the discussion in fairly turgid legal prose, but the message is clear: Bev Stayart's claims substantially overread the law, and she hasn't suffered any damage the court is going to recognize. Most plaintiffs would get the hint and cut their losses.
Among other consequences of her litigation campaign, Bev Stayart's litigation campaign has irrevocably changed the search results on her name. Instead of associating her with sexual dysfunction drugs, her search results forevermore will be associated with unmeritorious litigation. Thus, I still fail to understand why these lawsuits aren't fundamentally counterproductive to her apparent goal of improving her online reputation.
UPDATE 6:35pm: Stayart called Ars back, and said that she vehemently disagrees with the decision, and is considering appealing the case to the United States Supreme Court, as well as other suits. However, she noted that her counsel (also, her husband) will make those decisions.
"I feel that the decision was economically-driven, in favor of Google and against the rights of the individual," she told Ars, adding that the court seemed to only be representing the interests of the "1 percent."


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David Eagleman's Big Thoughts on Synesthesia
Posted by The Situationist Staff on August 16, 2012
From Big Think:
On a late winter day in 1922, the sound of a gun shot resounded with a loud boom in the hills surrounding the house of three-year-old Edgar Curtis. The sound itself wasn't out of the ordinary, since the Curtises lived near a firing range. What was extraordinary was the question the boy turned to ask his mother: "What is that big, black noise?"
A few days later, when his mother was putting him to bed, Edgar heard the chirping of a shrill cricket and demanded, "What is that little white noise?" For Edgar, low, rhythmic notes were dark in color. High-pitched sounds were pale, and, researchers later discovered, tones in between were variously red, blue, and purple. A rainbow was "a song."
Edgar Curtis' story is an early example in the scientific literature of synesthesia, a neurological phenomenon in which one or more sensory modalities are linked. "There are many different forms," says David Eagleman, a neuroscientist known for his ability to garner important insights into the nature of perception and consciousness through idiosyncratic methods. "Essentially, any cross-blending of the senses that you can think of, my colleagues and I have found a case somewhere."
Watch Big Think interview on synesthesia with neuroscientist David Eagleman:
Read the entire Big Think blog post here.
Related Situationist posts:


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There looked to be plenty of reasons to celebrate at Nationals Park today. The clear skies and rare weekday afternoon start drew folks from their offices to celebrate Cinco de Mayo with the Nats and Astros. It was also T-Shirt Tuesday, and the first 10,000 fans received free t-shirts featuring racing president Teddy Roosevelt wearing a sombrero. Ryan Zimmerman extended his record hitting streak to 23 games, and the hot-hitting Nationals turned 14 hits 8 walks into 10 runs. Unfortunately, the Nats pitching staff gave up the lead three times, and after 11 innings of 10-10 baseball, the rains came and the game was postponed.
The Nationals will have to wait until July 9 to determine the winner of this one, but the 4th-inning presidents race was officially completed with Abe coming from behind to pass Teddy, who appeared to be weighed down by the sombrero on his head.
Next home game is May 15th!
Video courtesy of YouTube member lfahome.


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But not everything associated with genealogy holds an interest for me. Here are 10 things I can list right off the bat that I don't give a fig about.
1. Family crests. Really. Don't need more junk around the house.
2. The One-World Super-Duper Ginormongous Family Tree. Yeah, I believe we're all related somewhere down the line. And the OWSDGFT kind of proves it: all families have fights, and this thing causes all sorts of fights, so we must all be related, right? And who wants to have proof that they are related to PeeWee Herman, Sylvester Stallone, Adolph Hitler, and that jerk who cut in front of you on the highway the other day?
3. Being related to Charlemagne. He's what - my 33rd great-grandfather? I probably have more genes in common with PeeWee Herman. Oh, wait.
4. Having a gazillion people in my family tree. Not only does my computer only have so much memory, I only have so much memory.
5. Having an Indian Princess among my ancestors. I'll be satisfied with any ole run-of-the-mill Native American.
As close as I'll ever get to an Indian Princess
6. Being related to any living celebrities. See Number 2 above. It would just be my luck.... Besides, judging from old family pictures, we tend more toward the Marjorie Main model than the Katherine Hepburn model.
7. Being able to "jump the pond" with all my lines. Well, yeah, OK, a little interest, at least for a few lines. But really, I'm plenty busy just finding out what the heck my ancestors were up to in this country.
8. Winning arguments.
"Oh, BTW, we aren't related to Sir Christopher So-and-So. That genealogy is bogus."
"But I found it on lots of online trees. It must be true."
"The DNA evidence indicates that we aren't related."
"Oh, that DNA stuff is just pseudo-science."
"But look at this guy here, his mother would only have been eight years old when he was born."
"It has been known to happen. There was a case in India...."
Waste of breath/ink/time.
9. Having only ancestors who were morally impeccable and totally nice. It's not that I have a preference for scoundrels and stinkers, it's just that the scoundrels and stinkers left more records.
10. "Finishing my research." Where's the fun in that?


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New face in Ionia County community corrections
Melonie Swisher has joined Ionia County's community corrections program as its manager. Swisher began her part-time position Jan. 4.
The community corrections manager oversees programs and services offered in the jail and in the community aimed at reducing jail overcrowding, so jail beds are used for the most dangerous offenders. Programs also work to reduce recidivism by offering effective alternatives to incarceration, and reduce crime so the safety of the community is improved.
Community corrections programs, which include cognitive behavioral therapy, substance abuse treatment and the Drunk Driver Jail Reduction Program (DDJRP), are paid for by a three-year grant from the State of Michigan Department of Corrections Office of Community Alternatives. The manager's salary also is included in the grant. The total community corrections budget for 2013 is $102,000.
Programs offered in the community to offenders when they are released serve as a check-in point so the courts know where the individuals are, Swisher said. In addition, community corrections programs help build relationships between the offenders and the agencies engaged with them.
"It gives offenders support that makes them feel like they can make it – and not just think it, but know they can," she said.
Swisher said, as the liaison between the state and the county, her priority is "making sure we're in compliance and operating under the grant correctly so we don't lose funding, but could even increase funding," she said. "There are endless opportunities that we can get the funds to do."
Swisher holds a Master of Science degree in criminal justice from Grand Valley State University and a Bachelor of Science degree in criminal justice from Western Michigan University. She worked with Project Rehab, a prisoner re-entry program in Grand Rapids, where she designed and implemented an evaluation tool. She also was an intern at the 9th Circuit Court and worked in the Prosecuting Attorney's Office, both in Kalamazoo County so she "knows what it's like to talk to and relate to offenders," she said. "I also have a broad understanding of the system."
Sheriff Dale Miller said he was "extremely impressed" with Swisher's past work experience and accomplishments.
"She went into a private business that was struggling, and was self-motivated to make changes that made the business very efficient," Miller said. "I was impressed with her positive attitude and willingness to accept all the challenges we set before her."
Swisher's organizational skills and her experience with Project Rehab swayed Ionia County Administrator Stephanie Hurlbut, who, with Miller, served on Swisher's interview team.
"We're excited to have her," she said. "The state is happy with us, and the progress we've made in the last couple of months (regarding grant-related reporting requirements). Now we can really get going."
Follow Karen Bota on Twitter @KarenB_ISS.


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Q&A with Ellen
LOS ANGELES - Seven years after her Oscar debut, Ellen DeGeneres is back.
The 56-year-old TV personality talked with The Associated Press about her plans and preparations for hosting her second Academy Awards on Sunday.
AP: What did it take for you to say "yes" again?
DeGeneres: "It took my agent saying, 'Yes, you should do it.' And I said, 'OK.' Look, it's the greatest gig in the world. And it's also really, really hard. So, I wasn't going to do it, because I've done it before. And I thought, 'I don't need to do that again.' And then I realized I'm too comfortable and too complacent and I should scare myself and take a chance. So here I am, scaring myself and taking a chance."
AP: Describe the fear element of the job.
DeGeneres: "It's live around the world, to a billion people watching, and every major person who is in the room that has done every major thing. I mean, I know a lot of them. So, it helps a little bit that I'm friendly with everybody. But it's still scary. It's the energy in the room. There's a lot of really anxious energy and, so, you kind of pick that up. You can feel all that when you walk out. So I'm trying to remain calm."
AP: How will you be able to resist dancing along with the nominated songs, especially Pharrell Williams' "Happy"?
DeGeneres: "I know. I will be dancing like crazy, whether he likes it or not. I'm just looking forward to the hat he wears. And I hope that the person (sitting) behind him isn't mad, because he wears a large hat, that Pharrell."
AP: What's your ultimate goal for Oscar night?
DeGeneres: "I hope that everyone had fun. I hope that it didn't seem like it's as long as it's going to be. This year it's six hours. Did you know that? Six hours... Here's what I hope: I hope when I say, 'Goodnight,' I hope people go: 'One more hour! One more hour!' And they start chanting and make me stay. That's what I hope."


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MENLO PARK, Calif. – With its new "Home" on Android gadgets, Facebook is trying to prove that a company doesn't have to make a smartphone or operating system to define how people interact with mobile technology. The audacious move will provide further insights into how pervasive Facebook has become, testing whether people want to be greeted with content from the social network every time they look at their phones.
When people start downloading the Home software upon its April 12 release in the U.S., Facebook will become the new hub of their Android smartphones.
Switch on your phone and you'll see friends' photos, overlaid by status updates, links and eventually, advertisements in Facebook's quest to bring in more revenue and restore its stock price to where it stood when the company went public nearly 11 months ago.
About 80 per cent of what currently appears within a Facebook user's News Feed will automatically be transferred into the "cover feed" of the Home service. For instance, a sibling's status update might be featured prominently on the phone's home screen when it's unlocked. Swipe a finger and there might be a photo posted by one of your best friends. Want to like what you see? Just tap on the home screen twice. Comments can be posted directly from the home screen, too.
If other friends happen to send you a message, their Facebook photo will pop up as a notification.
Other Facebook features, such as video, will be added to Home in future months. A Home version for Android-powered tablet computers also will be coming later this year.
Once they have had their fill of what Facebook is feeding them on the Home service, users can just swipe a finger on the screen to get to all the standard Android apps to listen to music, watch videos or send email.
At first, Home will only work on some Android devices, including HTC Corp.'s One X and One X Plus and Samsung Electronics Co.'s Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. For now, Home isn't compatible with the Nexus phone designed by Google, a fierce Facebook rival whose pliable Android software is being modified to accommodate the new service.
A phone from HTC that comes pre-loaded with Home will be available starting April 12, with AT&T Inc. as the carrier. The HTC First will sell for $99.99 with a two-year data plan from AT&T.
Home is debuting after several years of speculation that Facebook intended to make its own phone or mobile operating system to drive more traffic to its social network. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the speculation never made sense to him because he believes a company-produced phone might only end up in the hands of 10 million to 20 million people. The Home service gives Facebook a chance to take control of the main screen of every phone running on Android, the leading mobile operating system. In the U.S. alone, about 64 million people will be relying on Android-driven phones this year, estimated the research firm eMarketer.
"Just building a phone isn't enough for Facebook," Zuckerberg said Thursday during Home's unveiling at the company's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters.
The idea behind the software is to bring Facebook content right to users' home screens, rather than requiring them to check various apps to see what their friends are up to, or to chat. Down the line, Facebook will integrate its existing camera app and other features. Though cameras and calls won't be built into the initial version of Home, Zuckerberg promised the software will be updated at least once a month to add more features and fix bugs.
"Home" comes amid rapid growth in the number of people who access Facebook from phones and tablet computers. Of the social network's 1.06 billion monthly users, 680 million log in using a mobile gadget. As a result, the money Facebook makes from mobile advertising is also growing. Taking over the entire screen of smartphones and, eventually, tablet computers will provide Facebook for a larger canvas for selling mobile ads.
Zuckerberg, already a multibillionaire, didn't dwell on Home's moneymaking potential Thursday. Instead, he depicted the software as a noble attempt to put a higher priority on personal relationships than utilitarian apps.
"Why do we need to go into all the apps in the first place to see what is going on with the people we care about," he asked.
"We think this is the best version of Facebook there is," he said.
That statement implies that using Facebook on Apple's iPhone and other smartphones may become a less enriching experience. Apple Inc., which rigidly controls how apps work on the operating system built for the iPhone and iPad, has ingrained more Facebook features into the most recent versions of its mobile software
Apple had no immediate comment about Home.
Zuckerberg said users can have an experience on Android phones unavailable on other platforms because Google makes the software available on an open-source basis. That allows phone manufacturers and software developers to adapt it to their needs.
Recognizing that text messaging is one of the most important tasks on a mobile phone, Facebook programmed Home to include a feature called "chat heads." This lets users communicate with their friends directly from their home screens — without opening a separate app.
"What Facebook wants is to put itself at the front of the Android user experience for as many Facebook users as possible and make Facebook more elemental to their customers' experience," said Forrester analyst Charles Golvin.
While the Home service probably makes sense for Facebook, Forrester Research analyst Charles Golvin thinks the company is overestimating "the extent to which this is something their users want."
"I'm sure there are people out there whose lives revolve around their social network and for them it makes sense to have it front and centre," Golvin said. "But this doesn't describe the majority of consumers."
Google Inc. is among the companies hoping that Golvin is correct. The Internet search leader gives away its Android software for free, in the hope that it will steer phone users to ads sold by Google. With Home, Facebook will be muscling its way in between Android users and Google, creating an opportunity for Facebook to seize the advertising advantage.
This is not the first time a big Internet company has co-opted Android: Amazon.com's Kindle Fire tablets run a version of Android that strips out all Google services, replacing them with Amazon's equivalents. Google responded by releasing its own tablet to compete against the Kindle Fire last year.
The mobile advertising market is growing quickly, thanks in large part to Facebook and Twitter, which also entered the space in 2012. EMarketer expects U.S. mobile ad spending to grow 77 per cent this year to $7.29 billion, from $4.11 billion last year.
Facebook, meanwhile, is expected to reel in $1.53 billion in worldwide mobile ad revenue this year according to eMarketer, up from $470.7 million last year.
Facebook's stock rose 82 cents, or 3.1 per cent, to close Thursday at $27.07. That's 29 per cent below its initial public offering price of $38. Meanwhile, the Standard & Poor's 500 index has surged by 20 per cent since Facebook's rocky debut.